Well, then Duff needs to do something NOW and not wait for them to start running and fighting from the first minute. Here is an idea: Duff sends Darling, Wood, Cabango and Grimes to train with the under-23s, promotes three centre-backs and a defensive midfielder from the under-23s and starts them against Coventry. He has nothing to lose because we are going to lose anyway if we keep playing like we did against WBA.That last comment about "when the ball is in our box we need to clear it, it's not rocket science" - Martin likely would have told them not to clear it but to play out from the back instead. Sounds to me like the players who remain from last season are still in bad low-intensity habits from Martinball, and the new guys haven't had time to bed in.
Actually, not that often. We played long 57 times (long ball teams are those who play 70+ long balls per game): 19 Rushworth (which I think is OK, but his distribution was poor), 6 Wood, 6 Darling and 7 Cabango. Half of Wood's, Darling's and Cabango's long balls were diagonal balls, which can't be considered hoofing, but rather a welcome switch of play. Grimes, Fulton and Piroe's long balls were mostly crosses into the WBA box. Subtract Rushwort's long balls and you're left with 38 long balls. More than half of these were diagonal balls and crosses. So, it's not like we hoof it at every opportunity.a WBA supporter saying how surprised he was at how often Swans hoofed the ball